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Friday, August 31, 2007
Every 2 years a huge international wine exposition takes place in Bordeaux
The crowning event at the end of the expo is a grande soiree,La Fete de la Fleur
Only the creme de la creme in the wine trade attend:
chateau owners, distributors, celebrities etc.
Each year it's held at a different grand chateau in the Medoc..The year I went, it was at the lovely Chateau Cantenac-Brown.
I wrangled an invite by suggesting I should take photographs
for Wine Enthusiast magazine.
A tradition at the Fete is the prestigious awarding of new memberships into
Le Commanderie du Bon temps du Medoc
New and old members get to parade about in claret red velvet robes..
Hugh Grant was one of the recipients, but alas, I did not get his picture :(
Here are the St. Emilion Bon Temps members parading...
After Champagne and hors d'oeuvre on the grounds
there's a grand dinner inside.
In 1997 it was held inside a tent in case of rain.
Between courses there was Cirque du Soleil-style entertainment.
Performers on stilts dressed up as Bon temps members paraded...
Acrobats decked out as corks flew through the air to keep us amused.
I did this party doodle after the Fete...
The dinner menu served was quite simple - just 5 courses.
After all there were 1500 guests attending!
But I was amazed to see the cheese course/fromages served to each guest
individually by special cheese servers, rather than 6 chunks of cheese sitting on a plate.
The piece de resistance was of course, the wine menu shown here.
13 wines served to go with the 5 courses! ! !
I noticed while sitting at the Wine Enthusiast table,
A tradition at the Fete is the prestigious awarding of new memberships intoLe Commanderie du Bon temps du Medoc
New and old members get to parade about in claret red velvet robes..
Hugh Grant was one of the recipients, but alas, I did not get his picture :(
Here are the St. Emilion Bon Temps members parading...
After Champagne and hors d'oeuvre on the grounds there's a grand dinner inside.
In 1997 it was held inside a tent in case of rain.
Between courses there was Cirque du Soleil-style entertainment.
Performers on stilts dressed up as Bon temps members paraded...
Acrobats decked out as corks flew through the air to keep us amused.
I did this party doodle after the Fete...
The dinner menu served was quite simple - just 5 courses.After all there were 1500 guests attending!
But I was amazed to see the cheese course/fromages served to each guest
individually by special cheese servers, rather than 6 chunks of cheese sitting on a plate.
The piece de resistance was of course, the wine menu shown here.
13 wines served to go with the 5 courses! ! !
I noticed while sitting at the Wine Enthusiast table,
quite a bit of tipping of the waiter to get very large glasses refilled
with some of the world's finest wines...
Hmmmm...
Here is the sad secret that has kept me from following in Ms. P. Hilton's footsteps...
Here is the sad secret that has kept me from following in Ms. P. Hilton's footsteps...
My alcoholic capacity is about 2 THIMBLES FULL!
THAT IS IT!
Anymore than my quota, say 3 thimbles full
and I am known to become dangerously flagrant.
Plus I suffer massive hangovers!
So I did not get to leave the soiree drunk and disorderly :(
But I did get a very nice claret red umbrella (it started to rain)
And the truly amazing fact is
I still have this umbrella 10 years later!!!
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